HBASE-6580 replaced the preferred means of HTableInterface acquisition to the HConnection#getTable factory methods. HBASE-9117 removes the HConnection cache, placing the burden of responsible connection cleanup on whomever acquires it.
The remaining HTable constructors use a Connection instance and manage their own HConnection on the callers behalf. This is convenient but also a surprising source of poor performance for anyone accustomed to the previous connection caching behavior. I propose deprecating those remaining constructors for 0.98/0.96 and removing them for 1.0. While I'm at it, I suggest we pursue some API hygiene in general and convert HTable into an interface. Can that be done for 1.0 as well?
